Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 02, 2016

You bring this on yourself Brad, by making yourself available.

In-laws sure are hard to deal with. I’ve no problem at all with my stepsisters’ husbands nor my brother’s wife. As for my wife’s family, none (I’m not married nor have a girlfriend).

Good time to deal with this, before they get married. This is a real test.

Toni looks like she’s having second thoughts about marrying Brad…

I sure hope Brad doesn’t keep this up or Toni may get tired of it very quickly and so will I.

In-laws. Have to deal with them, have to, to paraphrase (kind of) old man George H. W. Bush. He famously said “not gonna do it” “read my lips, I am not going to raise (income) taxes” Of course time came when he had to, to his demise politically. Brad will have to “deal with Jonah”, he is “gonna have to do it.” Jonah comes as part of the package to get that babe he is engaged too. I figure it will work out, but this is so close to life in the real world, so lets see how it works out in Luannverse.

Actually, Toni’s facial expression in that last panel could be interpreted as “I know, I agree with you, but neither of us can do anything about it.”

I think Brad needs to deal with his anger issues.

seismic-2 GoComics PRO Member said, about 9 hours ago

@PipeTobacco

The “adoption” will likely not require Jonah to be shown to be an unfit parent so that Shannon can be taken away from him. Instead, Jonah will simply get an acting job (such as a in a road company of “Cats”) that will take him away from Pitts from several months, maybe a year. He will leave Shannon in the care of Toni and Brad, and then he will simply disappear from the strip.^^I don’t often agree with Seismic, but, this time, I do.

Brad had a nice recovery with “challenging handful”!

This seems almost like a fitting bookend, in some respects…and an interesting ‘reversal’ of character dialogue, somewhat, looking at both now and then (June 4-12, 2010)…–

My difficulty was in not being able to resize them in the app I use to put up pics.-But I just got the help I needed, thanks….

Personally, I think the “A word” fits Jonah, much better than “flake”

@pointspread:

This is just a comic, but you’re missing the point: this is what the beginning of living in a step situation (having stepkids, being a stepparent) is really like. Toni is Shannon’s mother figure and Brad will be her father figure being married to Toni. He’s already stepped into that role.

It is not about enabling, it is about doing what is best for the kid involved, when the biological parent(s) are unavailable or otherwise absent. The fun part comes when the kid (Shannon in this case) dumps on Brad. Sort of happened already when Jonah walked in to perform with Shannon. Eventually she will get more mouthy with him because he is an available indirect target.

Brad is angrier than the situation warrants – it has to be thinly disguised jealousy. Brad, if you want this grown woman, quit acting like a brat!

“Acceptance Speech”“Driving Home The Point”“Face Of Spades”“Call ’Em Like They Is”“In-laws’ By-Laws”“Package Deal”“Can’t Live With ‘Em, Can’t Understand How They Got Your New Phone Number”“Comes With The Territory”“Par For The Course, Of Course!”

“Trade Offs”“The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Truth”“Have A Beef, Stew A While”“A Little Pressure Off The Vents”or

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (♬)

It’s like that old saying. How does it go? Oh, yeah- “You can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your family’s nose. That’s what the plastic surgeon is for”….

Toni: “You just need to accept who he is and learn to deal with.”.Brad: “I just get so MAD every time he shows up.”.Mission accomplished!

I started psychoanalyze a cartoon character! Sheesh! Anyway, if this were a person Toni seems to be enabling bad behavior by allowing Jonah to come and go as he pleases with no consequences for bad behavior and smoothing things over with Shannon by excusing his bad behavior. This is what is causing Brad’s frustrations along with not being recognized for being there when Jonah wasn’t. This isn’t unreasonable behavior on anyone’s part except Toni. She has the ability to break this entire cycle.

Mad if he doesMad if he doesn’tDoesn’t bother Jonah at all

I don’t think there has ever been a man in Toni’s life that Brad WASN’T mad at!

“the one bad thing about our marraiage.” Cynical about this statement. After two years, or so, still not convinced Brad & Toni’s relationship is the most compatible. Just a gut feeling.

“the one bad thing about our marraiage.” Cynical about this statement. After two years, or so, still not convinced Brad & Toni’s relationship is the most compatible. Just a gut feeling.

I think Brad is overlooking one thing about Shannon’s Dad and Shannon. He may be a flake but at least he stayed with Shannon. If he was a real flake he could have just put her up for adoption when the mother left. And frankly, Toni’s enabling her brother’s behavior. Grow a uterus, Toni, and tell your brother he needs to start being a better father.

Compatible or not,Brad and Toni are together,forever.Gut feeling.

“You dated him for four years. You named him Brad. Then one day you wrecked Brad. You two had been through everything together. Two boyfriends. Three jobs. Nothing can replace Brad. Then Liberty Mutual calls and you break into your Happy Dance!”

Sounds like no matter what Jonah does, whether if it’s good or bad, Brad will still be angry about it.

I’ve seen the type of “parent” Jonah is, in real life. In that case, the so-called “dad” was extremely, almost exclusively self-centered, continually made the wrong decisions in life, let the default step-dad do everything and never gave any thanks for it, yet criticized the step-dad’s parenting methods (which were excellent), even throwing angry tantrums about it, and then immediately doing 180-degree turns and acting all fake nicey-nicey the next day as if nothing at all happened, and expecting the step-parent to act all nicey in return. Except that he eventually didn’t. He finally let the stupid self-serving @-hole have a big piece of his mind, and it wasn’t pretty, but it had to be done. Brad might be getting to that critical juncture here.

Good Gaw, Brad. You’re WHINING so much You are about to turn into Gunther.Sure, the Flake MAY soon be Your Brother-In-Law, But He and His Daughter, Are NOT Your PROBLEM.

Toni, I thought YOU got Over that “I’m Just a Doormat” Phase when YOU Ditched Dirk. YOU need to do something YOU SHOULD have Done Years ago and Tell “Super Dad,” since He’s All Newfangled “Responsible” Now and All, that YOU are NOT taking care of the Kid anymore under ANY Circumstances, PERIOD, Family or No Family.

And If “Daddy” Jonah Falters One IOTA in His Fatherhood Duties, a friendly call to the Local Social Services Might be in Order. “Tough Love.” Its Your FRIEND.

NOW, You and Brad Hurry Up and get Home so You Two can make Love…..,

Shannon’s six, she lives in the “now”. When she’s older, she’ll realize what her dad’s like.

Oldest children traditionally have been “rule followers”. I’m not sure if this is accurate, but in Brad’s case it looks like this may be an opportunity for him to learn flexibiity.

Brad’s beginning to tread the course Toni’s tread and has to deal with the thorns, you cross a minefield by following the footprints of the last one to cross it, sucessfully..

Brad is in waaaaaaay over his head. Toni is out of his league. I’m amazed the Fire Chief isn’t bouncing Toni on his knee and tickling her under the chin.

The more Brad talks about Jonah, the more Toni will get conflicted over things. He may be aloof, but Jonah is her brother, and Brad needs to step carefully or else she will start to defend Jonah and resent Brad for it. She has said as much in the first panel — “He’ll be your brother-in-law soon.” That’s Toni’s passive way of saying “rejecting Jonah is rejecting me.” I hope Brad is listening, or this wedding is going to get called off….

I looked at the strip again after I got up, and it seems that Toni might be telling Brad something on his future in-law, which is accepting Jonah as he is, and dealing with it. Can Brad do that? If not will it affect their wedding plans? This does not change my original comment, but it explains it more clearly I think.

I interpret Toni’s multiple “I know” ’s as a sad, weary “Been there, done that”

You clearly have never lived in a ‘step’ family situation, or even an extended family situation. There’s always a relative who can make someone angry or uncomfortable, like a father-in-law who is never satisfied by a potential son-in-law who works with his hands instead of his intellect, or a brother-in-law braggart or a bully. If you love someone, you accept and deal with the fact that they come with the ‘baggage’ of the rest of their family. If you want perfection, go see if you can get early admittance to Heaven. Since you categorize anyone female that you disagree with as a ‘bimbo’, I think you’ve bought a ticket elsewhere.

Hate this comic? No one is holding a gun to your head to make you read it.

“Brad probably wouldn’t get so mad if the Jonah would at least show up on time and be prepared for what he would need to do.”^Exactly!

I actually combined two different maxims. One says that you can’t pick your family, either (though technically you can …in various ways). It applies to the fact that when you marry someone, their ‘clan’ will be related to you, and at various points along the way, one will have to interact with them.

I think it’s good that Brad is venting to Toni and not holding in his emotions. Toni does understand but will never be able to act, and neither will Brad, because of Shannon’s situation (and theirs). But clear understanding is good that Brad will have to be resigned to accepting Jonah’s behavior.

Ahhhhh.. No Toni, you can accept Jonah but not enable him. I would imagine in a real world a relative would have by now started to move for getting legal guardianship of Shannon.

Toni should consider not marrying Brad. People are usually attracted to the same type of person. Dirk had control issues and now Brad is showing anger issues. Brad doesn’t seem to consider what is best for Shannon. He is too concerned about his own ego.

Oh come now Brad, what could possibly go wrong? (I’m sure I won’t jinx anything)

5I am glad that Brad is now venting in the car instead of potentially and accidentally in front of Shannon and Jonah. That is a much safer place for Brad to “vent”. I am also glad that Toni is not adding a whole lot of dialogue to the conversation at the moment. Her brief, succinct, “I know.” comments are designed to (IMO) let Brad vent but also to not add additional fuel to Brad’s “ire fire”. By just commenting briefly, she is letting Brad know she is listening and probably agreeing with what he is saying…. but also letting the anger and frustration begin to diminish and hopefully peter out. That is IMO a skillful tactic Toni is using to help Brad cool down. +++++++++++++++Just as an aside…. Brad probably needs to adjust the height of the upper anchor of his seatbelt. He has it set too low currently, and it is not positioning the strap across his shoulder… which is the proper position for maximum effectiveness in protecting him in a crash. Toni’s belt could be re positioned upward a bit too, but it is in a better position than Brad’s is.

I am beginning to wonder if Toni has completely recovered from her bad interlude with Dirk. She seems to be acting as an enabler for Jonah, rather than doing anything to better the situation. That is what is worrying me….

When I asked my fiance’s father for her hand in marriage he responded by saying: “Son, you’ll have to take all of her.” It took a while before I understood it meant not just all of her but all of her ‘stuff’ and all of her family. While there are some interesting ‘components’ of all that, we’ve made it 33 years and still going strong. Of course, a number of the questionable relatives have moved on from this life.

Why do so many posters here see ‘anger issues’ because Brad has the audacity to talk about his displeasure and dismay over a recurring situation. he is TALKING, not shouting. He has raised a hand at no one. So he has the nerve to speak aloud about it to the one person that might get through to Jonah? How is he displaying ANGER issues. I would like to see SPECIFICS. And not sporadic one-time instances but where is there a PATTERN. Keep in mind ALL of this is happening on the SAME night as the show, maybe within one hour, since Jonah showed up like Mighty Mouse.

Hey I want to get back to everyone busting Les the rip off.

Rough day. We had to get a mercy shot for Orville. He suddenly grew a large abdominal growth that was not on x-ray or ultrasound just a week ago, and he suddenly became unable to coagulate despite blood tests including platelets being fine last week. We will know more after necropsy and pathology, but, though rare, the most common fit for this is lymphoma that was hidden somewhere like in the marrow. We went through that once before in about 34 years, and even know a vet expert who went through it w one of his own once.Okay, a serious but in this case fictional topic for distraction:It would be just as hard on Toni if Jonah and Shannon moved away. Then a person gets to have a number of worries but no way to see for herself. Sometimes all is well, but sometimes there is a call one day that a family member’s kid is in rehab and has chosen you to be the family member to speak with because others are actively part of the problem which got the young one into the situation.The overwhelming emotions can be frustration and exhaustion because nothing so far tried works. It can be helpful to know that a trusted person agrees with you, but sometimes it can be so overwhelming that hearing about it one more time will be even more exhausting.The reality is that the adults who are outside the core unit very often can do nothing UNLESS the adult(s) in that core group permit it. Sometimes they can not even know what it really going on. So, the BEST solution would be for Jonah to change for the better, but only Jonah can decide to do that. Toni KNOWS this. Brad is still learning it, so he is frustrated and still annoyed. He is not used to being powerless. Toni is too used to it. She is frustrated but exhausted by the impossible aspects of the situation.

The only one who can do something about it is Greg Evans.You finally said something I agree with.

So now we are back to Brad and Toni, and more of Brad complaining about Jonah……….bummer……….I was hoping for more of Shannon, Jonah and the Fuse. They have now become more interesting characters to me for having done something creative together. Despite all the Jonah bashing, I like him (as a character) more than Brad (or Toni). He may be a flake but he’s not a villain and he’s into music and theater which are creative things. There’s not a creative bone in Brad’s body (nor Toni’s) so they are less interesting. I hope to see more of Jonah with Shannon; there’s no denying that they looked so cute together! I do notice that Shannon is not riding back home with Brad and Toni. I suspect they wouldn’t be talking about about her father like this with her in the car.

Perhaps my first comment got deleted, well, maybe it deserved to be. The point is in the second panel……“deal with it”. Toni is telling Brad that her brother takes priority over the feelings of her husband. Better start assembling a list of therapists and/or divorce lawyers, you’ll need it. I think my in-laws had their last reunion in a toxic waste dump.

I think PipeTobacco has it closest to right here. The fact that Brad and Toni can even have this conversation is a good indicator that they’ll have a good marriage. When both feel comfortable discussing their relatives’ pros and cons that openly, neither will hesitate to bring any matter to the other.

Uh – oh.…………………………………………………………………First crack in the picture.

I believe there is an element of jealousy on Brad’s part. What Toni is saying is: ‘accept me…. then accept my brother’. Clearly she loves him; there is obviously something about him for her to love (besides the fact that he is her brother), in spite of the fact that he is not taking his role as parent seriously, just like Shannon obviously loves him unconditionally. You could see Brad’s puzzled look when Shannon was so infatuated with Jonah at the Fuse (before and after their performance), When in the presence of both Jonah and Brad, Shannon chose Jonah… and with passion. Brad can’t fathom this. Moreover, it is something he cannot control and it makes him angry.

Exactly, NG. He would like to prtect those he loves but he can not, and not being used to a major problem where he is powerless but knows another coukd correct the situation if that person desired to, the level of frustration is huge for him.

Says I get such a kick out of people making this out as a real life it or at least I think it is a comic strip.

Thank you, NG.

“Here he comes to save the day!That means that Deadbeat Dad is on his way!”

Trilogy, thanks from me, too, for that mental image.

Do you think that Toni will give some version of that admonition to her brother? Not likely.

SPOILER

Toni changes the subject and defuses the tension. For now…

Spoiler 2: happy bonding